‘This is not just this university’s struggle but the struggle of every university in this country,’ said Umar Khalid (centre) two days before his arrest.
Photograph: Strdel/AFP/Getty Images

A student at one of India’s most prestigious universities has been arrested on charges of sedition in the latest in a series of detentions under colonial-era laws which have raised fears over freedom of speech in the country.

Umar Khalid, 25, a graduate student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was arrested at about midnight on Tuesday night following allegations that he had participated in a demonstration that authorities have called anti-Indian.

Protests to continue at Indian university after student leader's arrest

Addressing supporters before his arrest, Khalid said: “People outside have to carry on the struggle. We will be fighting from inside.”

University security officials then drove Khalid Anirban Bhattacharya, another person accused to a police station in south Delhi. Indian police do not enter campuses without written permission from university authorities.

Khalid and five others were accused of organising an “anti-Indian” event after the protest to mark the anniversary of the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted of an attack on India’s parliament that left 10 people dead.

Opposition parties and over 400 academics from universities around the world have accused India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his government of using colonial-era laws – and mobs of nationalist supporters – to suppress dissent and free speech.

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At a gathering of student demonstrators last week, Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, called for a law to protect universities. “We need a law to ensure that students in colleges and universities do not face discrimination and their voice is not stifled,” he said.

Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who was also present at Wednesday’s demonstration, said: “If Modiji does not mend ways then very soon the youth and students will come together to teach him a lesson.”

Modi is believed to have taken a hardline position on the matter. Reports from a meeting of his ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Wednesday evening quoted Modi as saying: “The government is working fine and has a lot to show. The opposition is raking up non-issues like JNU that the party needs to debate and contest aggressively.”

At a midnight meeting at JNU two days before his arrest, Khalid stood before hundreds of fellow students to explain his battle with the government.

“Today this is not just this university’s struggle but the struggle of every university in this country,” he said, “It is a battle for this society – it is a battle for what sort of a society would we have in the days to come.”